- Researchers report that a traditional Southern diet of fried foods and processed meats can increase the risk of sudden cardiac arrest.
- Experts say you can improve your heart health and lower your blood pressure by utilizing a DASH or Mediterranean diet that emphasizes fish, vegetables, and fruit.
- Experts recommend anyone trying out one of these heart-healthy diets start by slowly making changes to their eating and lifestyle habits.
The DASH diet may help lower blood pressure and reduce inflammation, as well decrease heart injury and strain.
The same holds true whether you use the DASH diet alone or in conjunction with a low-sodium diet, although reducing your salt has added benefits.
That’s according to a new study published recently in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
The findings gain more significance today when another study was released by the American Heart Association that concluded that the typical Southern diet of fried foods, processed meats, and sugar-laden beverages can increase risk of sudden cardiac death.
In that report, researchers said the danger of death from cardiac arrest can be lowered by following a Mediterranean style diet with higher volumes of fruits, vegetables, fish, whole grains, and legumes.
“Improving one’s diet by eating a diet abundant in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fish such as the Mediterranean diet and low in fried foods, organ meats, and processed meats, characteristics of the Southern-style dietary pattern, may decrease one’s risk for sudden cardiac death,” wrote James M. Shikany, DrPH, FAHA, the study’s lead author and a professor of medicine and associate director for research in the Division of Preventive Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Source: healthline